A story of possibly huge political significance is seeping into the MSM. (Caveat -- I don't know how to do all those fancy-wancy shaded quote boxes that some many others do, but here it goes.)
Several pieces out today -- one from newsweek, another from Wash Times -- noting that George Tenet is coming under heavy criticism in an CIA IG report that has yet to be made public. The significance is -- if George Tenet decides (or is forced) to "come home" and to join the growing majority of Americans who now know that the reasons for the war were largely fabricated, it could provide Dems with an Alexander-Butterfield of Watergate-fame-type moment--that of a insider account of who said what when and in what context.
Butterfield, as you'll recall, was the deputy white house assistant to Nixon -- who first revealed the existence of the Watergate tapes.
(more below the jump)
Acording to the WaTimes piece, Tenet has a scathing 20-page response to the IG report, which recommends "punitive sanctions" against Tenet and several others for "their failure to develop a strategy against al Qaeda."
According to John B. Roberts II (the other John Roberts), Tenet is viewing this as a breaking of their "wink and nod" agreement "with the White House that he wouldn't be scapegoated for intelligence failings. The deal, one source says, was sealed with the award of the Presidential Freedom Medal."
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050831-091719-1217r.htm
According to the author, Tenet's response "treads perilously close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke, the former NSC terrorism official whose public disclosure of the Bush administration's delay in adopting a strategy against al Qaeda stirred controversy last summer."
Isikoff & Hosenball confirm many of the underlying details here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9149402/site/newsweek
Apparently, Tenet recently turned down a $4.5 million book offer in order to keep his Butterfield-like account buried. As the Roberts' piece hints, he coudl very well re-think all of this if he's made the scapegoat.